The Faroese Region Cronicles

[nitros]

Chapter 1: final bell and first pokemon


Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

I sat there waiting, along with everyone else in the room, waiting, watching and listening as the clock on the wall of the classroom ticked by in agonizingly long seconds. The room was filled with the tension of more than two dozen graduate students, waiting for their first taste of true freedom in this world, and no one dare say a
word.

Thirty more seconds, I thought to myself. Twenty. Someone sneezed and I knew that they were just thrown, at least, five different variants of glare attack. Ten. Someone inhaled sharply, and if it was the same person as before, well, I would almost feel sorry for what would happen to them later. Five. Four. Three. The tension rose to almost unbearable levels. Two. And the clock stopped working... Fortunately though the bells had not. We all jumped out of our seats cheering and then went running to the door, flooding out into the hall way and for those that lived in the surrounding area, vacated through the nearest set of double doors to the parking lot. As for me, though, I ran toward the stairs, barreling through anyone that got in my way. After running up several flights of stairs I entered a hallway and ran straight for the door to my room and pulled out my key. Before I could put my key into the doorknob the door opened, pulling back to reveal my room-mate and best friend for the past eight years, Kyle Kiln.

“Hey bud,” he asked smirking, “What took you so long?”

“Oh you know,” I said, knowing from his ruffled clothes and his harsh breathing that he couldn’t have beaten me by very long, “chatting up the girls that rejected you,” enjoying the scowl his smirk turned into.

He sighed, dropping the scowl entirely and stepped back, allowing me to enter, “So the day's finally here, huh, Mark,” he said raising his hand for a high-five.

“Yep,” I said, slapping his hand as I went through. I then went over to my bed, and after making sure Kyle had closed the door, stripped out of the horrible school uniform, which consisted of a white button down shirt, a sky blue tie and navy blue dress pants, and threw them all into the backpack that lay on the bed alongside my change of clothes.

“So you still heading to your dad’s?” he asked as went over to his own bed and began to do the same.

“Yep,” I answered pulling on my dark-red shirt and blue jeans, followed by black coat, with its multiple hidden pockets, and my black and red half-pokeball skull cap, hiding my obnoxiously curly hair, “you still heading to your parents?” I asked of him.

“Indeed,” he said, pulling a tan button down over his light blue t-shirt and then began working on lacing up his boots, “they’ve got an egg about to hatch and I’ll hopefully get there in time to see my pokemon emerge.”

“Great,” I said encouragingly; as I slid my feet back in to my battered shoes, which was the only item of visible apparel the school didn’t enforce, and swung on my back pack. I then asked, “So you ready to go?”

“Am I ever!” He shouted punching a fist into the air, following me out the room, sling his gym bag over his shoulder. The trip back down the stairs was relatively faster then it was going up and walking through the halls was a lot easier now that, just about, everyone had vacated them and we exited the trainer’s school for the last time, less than five minutes after we had gotten to our room. The outside light was harsh for a moment as our eyes adjust to it, and when I could finally see again I looked around at the city I had grown to love over the past eight years. I sighed then walked down the step and over to the bike rack and unchained my bike as Kyle followed me to it.

“Well I guess this is good bye,” Kyle said, extending his hand after I had unchained my bike and got on.

“Only for a while,” I said shaking his hand, “Faroese isn’t that big, and when we meet again we’re going to battle and I-”

“I’m going to win,” He shot in before turning to go, “good luck at the lab,” he called, walking in the direction of the train station that would take him to the harbor. I sighed wishing he hadn’t brought it up, but there was no point in dreading what must happen if I was to achieve my goal, and become the greatest pokemon trainer in Faroese, and eventually. So I lifted my foot and put it on the pedal and began to go, only to be stopped by a girl on another bike.

“And where the hell do you think you’re going,” The girl shouted at me. As I looked at her I had to admit, that with her brown hair with blue highlights, sharp brown eyes, and school uniform, she looked quite attractive, or would have if it wasn’t for the cloud of arrogance that she wrapped around herself like a veil.

“What do you want, Marla?” I sighed, knowing full well that she wouldn’t let me go anywhere until she got what she wanted.

“You heard me. Where. the HELL. Are YOU. Going!” She barked again.

“Home,” I said rolling my eyes, turning my bike to go around her only for her to move in front of me again, “Where else.”

“Well lucky for you then,” She said, her voice cold and sweet, “You get to escort me to the Lab.”

“Excuse me?” I asked shocked at the ridiculous request, “Are you going to pay me?”

“Of course not,” She said, flipping her hair, “You’re going to do it because I’m a beautiful young lady.”

“How about no,” I said turning my bike once again to the same results.

“How about if you don’t, I’ll just follow you anyway,” She said, with a sly smile.

I growled, and came up with at least a half-dozen different responses but didn’t say any of them for she was, dispite all the evidence against it, as she said, a girl. I sighed, “Fine.” I then back pedaled and then pedaled forward fast, then making the bike go up on one wheel at the last moment and jumped it over her. “But only if you can keep up!” I shouted to her.

“Hey! Evergreen!” She shouted back at me, but I ignored her and kept pedaling faster and faster weaving in and out of traffic ignoring stop lights and signs. I only stopped when I noticed the gigantic TV on the side of Stadium Hall. When Marla finally caught up and stopped she shouted at me, “Evergreen! What the hell do you think you’re doing!” Instead of supplying her with a decent response I raised a hand and shushed her all my attention on the screen which was filled with dark black smoke, “Oh yeah, today’s the first rounds of the Pokemon League championship isn’t it,” Marla
murmured to herself.

“And we’re back folks,” The announcer shouted over the huge speakers, “and here at Battle City we’re still waiting for the smoke to clear after our two competitors solar beam and outrage attacks collided. Oh the smoke seems to finally be clearing.” The announcer was correct as smoke the slowly drifted away and concrete shapes began to form. When the smoke finally faded the field was destroyed and the winner obvious. On one side there was a Torterra, flipped upside down, and it wasn't even trying to pick itself up, its trainer seemed to be unconscious as well with half his body hidden under its tree. On the other side was huge Dragonair spiraling upwards levitating its trainer in the middle of its spiral. The ref then ran forward and waved a flag identifying the trainer with the Dragonair as the winner.

“And that’s that,” the announcer’s voice boomed, “What an amazing battle, and with the use of only one pokemon J secures the victory in the first round!”

“That’s going to be me, one day,” I said staring at the screen as it showed a close up of the victorious trainer, a man completely hidden by the cloak that surrounded him, as he returned his pokemon.

“Yeah, Evergreen,” Marla said as the screen switch to the guy under the continent pokemon who had medics surrounding him, “You’re going to be the guy under the Torterra.”

“No,” I said as the camera switched once more as this trainer J started leaving, “I’m going to be him,” Then a sharp gust of wind blows the cowl of his cloak down revealing a mess of dark hair, and as he turned to face the camera once more I saw his sharp, dark, cold eyes tinted with flecks of silver and then said, "no," once more followed by, “I’m going to be better than him… and no one’s going to stop me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We biked quietly after that, and even on the train she didn’t say a word. It was after we had gotten out and retrieved our bikes that she finally spoke up.

“So what’s your dad like?” She asked as we pedaled away from battle city and toward Jadius Village where both my home and the pokemon lab were located.

“He’s nice enough, I guess,” I replied.

“Oh,” she said, and again we were plunged into uncomfortable silence. This time the silence continued all the way till we reached the lab. I slowed down as we approached and stared for a moment. It looked like a pretty simple building from the outside, although it was rather large, but compared to the other buildings in the town that called itself a village, it was a monument to the encroaching cities upon the simple hamlets the made up most of the population of the island region that was Faroese. Where the buildings around town where made from mainly brick and sometimes, rarely, concrete and drywall, the lab, however, was made mainly out of a dark glass and steel, and that which wasn’t was made out of some kind of rough white stone. I sighed, then I sighed again.

“Well I might as well get this over with,” I said before dismounting the bike and leaned it against the building, and I walked inside while calling loudly, “Hey, everyone! I’m home!” needless to say my outburst was met by a roll of the eyes from Marla, a few shakes of the head and minor greetings from the staff, or at least most of the staff.

“Um, excuse me, sir,” One female lab assistant with a stern face said as she walked over to me, “I’m afraid you’ve gotten yourself confused, now if you could please-“ I quieted her with a raise of my hand.

“You’re new here,” I asked, crossing my arms, “aren’t you.”

“I am most certainly not,” She said her even sterner face turning a dark red, “ I’ll have you know I’ve been working here for two FULL years. Now if I must, I will also inform you that this is not your home. This is a place of science and not a place for stuck up brats like you and miss pricy over there.” Though I smiled at the insult to Marla, calling me a stuck up brat was inexcusable, so I looked around the room till I saw a another lab assistant with a hand over his mouth trying, desperately, not to be heard laughing.

“Hey Marco,” I called over, waving to get his attention, “How are Jeanie and Jewel?”

“There good, Kid,” He called back managing to swallow back the laughter, “They loved the gifts you sent last Christmas.”

“That’s good I was hoping they would,” I said happily then giving him a curious look I asked, “Hey did you know that I, apparently, don’t live here anymore? I mean I knew this was a place of science but I didn’t this wasn’t a place for… oh what was it… spoiled brats like me and miss prissy over there.”

Marco, who was unable to hold back the laughter any long, said between breaths, “No, Mark, I didn’t know either of those things,” he then turned, laughing away, as Miss Stern, as I decide to so call her, red stern face turned furious. I then looked around the room to I spotted a different lab assistant who was wearing an amused smile on her face.

“Hey, Susan, how’s it between you and… oh what’s his name… Jacob… Jonas… James? It’s been so long…”

“Jason, and well,” she held up her hand revealing a diamond ring.

“Oh, I’m so happy for you,” I said sincerely, “You have got to send me an invitation to the wedding.”

“It’s already in the mail,” She said.

“Speaking of mail,” I asked, once again wearing a confused expression, “My dad does still live here, right?”

“Last time I checked he did,” Susan said with a laugh and the shake of her head. Then the doors in the back of the front of the lab opened, which drew the attention of everyone room. Out of the doors stepped through a man in his mid-fifties, whose hear had a grey streak in it that I didn’t remember and was wearing a basic white lab coat which, as always, was completely buttoned revealing only his polished black shoes. Following him where to more lab assistants who were talking quietly behind him.

“Ah the man of the hour,” I said then waving my arms I shouted, “Hey Dad! I’m home!”

“Professor Evergreen, I must inform you that this miscreant and his-“ Miss Stern's once furious expression turned to one of sheer terror, as my words finally sank in. I watched gleefully as the red color drained from her face to paper white, and then to a kind mucus-y yellow-green color.

“I heard you the first time, son,” My dad said patting me on the head, something that I let him get away with today, for the sake of Miss Sterns deepening terror. My dad then looked to Miss Stern and asked, “Now ,what was it you were saying Abby?”

“Oh! Um! Nothing at all sir,” she said quickly.

“I see,” my dad said, giving me a look before I could further terrorize the assistant, then to me he asked, “So I’m hoping your being here means that you have changed your mind and decided to take up a career in science?”

“Nope,” I said, rolling my eyes, “I’m here fulfilling our deal. I went to the trainer’s school, now you have to give me a pokemon.”

“I guess I do,” He sighed then spotting Marla asked, “Well now who is this charming young lady?”

Marla then shot forward and grabbed me dad’s hand, “Hello, I’m Marla and I was in the same graduating class as Marky here, and was wondering if I could get a pokemon as well,” She said rapidly in her way to nice to be true voice.

“Marky?” I asked in disbelief.

“Well, including Mark we already have five new trainers today-” my dad said until one of the assistants behind him leaned forward and whispered something in his ear, “Oh? Well Marla, it seems you’re in luck one of the perspective trainers called to reschedule not long ago and we have a spot to fill.”

“Yes,” She said to herself, throwing a fist into the air.

“Ok then,” my dad said eyeing the gesture, “Well I’m going to leave you two in the capable hands of Assistant Trall,” waved a hand to one of the assistants behind him.

This assistant then said in a rather dull and nasally voice, “If you would follow me please,” He then turned on a dime and started walking toward the door to the back not even bothering to see if we were following. After we passed through the door we entered along hall way that split off into multiple other labs, none of which we entered as we walked to the very end of the hall way to a black metal door. The assistant pressed several buttons on a key pad and the door slide open allowing us to enter, “please stand under one of the lights,” The assistant said, after we had entered, before pressing another button closing the door. As we looked around we noticed that the five circular spots of light colored silver, red, brown, tan, and blue were the only source of light in the room. As the other three were already occupied we took the latter two, me in the tan, Marla in the blue. Once we stepped into our lights a hologram of my dad appeared before us.

“Welcome,” Holo-dad said, “I am professor Evergreen, and this,” my dad disappeared to be replaced by a 3-d map of all the islands in our region, “is Faroese. Faroese is a place filled with many wonderful and magnificent creatures called pokemon,” the map was replaced by rapid fire holograms of various pokemon, which were then replaced by holo-dad, “And as trainers it’s your job to capture, train, and grow with these creatures. To that end we, the pokemon league and myself, are happy to present you with these,” out of the floor before us rose five podiums, laden with a strange device that looked similar to some of the latest Smartphone’s, a leather bound notebook, and six pokeballs, five of them smaller and surrounding the larger one in a pentagon, “Your first pokemon and your pokedex. If you would also take note ,the notebook before you and the five miniaturized pokeballs surrounding the larger one. The former will serve as your pass port and to hold your trainer Id card, as well as, I hope, a journal of your journeys throughout the world. Mean while the latter are your pokeballs in their storage form, to enlarge them to catch, release, and reveal form simply touch the center button, to miniaturize them once more touch the center button and hold it down till its stopped shrinking. To ‘call out’ your pokemon, as you trainers call it, simply press and release the button once it is at its larger form. Now if you would please, collect your new supplies and pokemon and return to the front lab for your Trainer Card. That is all.” Holo-dad disappeared and the door swung open once more temporarily blinding me for a moment. Once I could see again I put my pokedex into one of the main pockets on the outside of my coat, my journal into one of my inner pockets, and the five Pokeballs into my coats zippered breast pocket. As I picked up the Pokeball that held my new pokemon, I clicked the button, causing the red lid to flip open and a red light to shoot out of the ball, which then formed into a small brown and white oversized ant with stumpy legs, an oversized head and beady eyes.

“Aw, thats the one I wanted,” the guy in the brown light complained.

“Hi, there Trapinch. I’m Mark and I’m going to be your trainer from now on, ok?” I asked it as I went to pet its head, only for it to latch its sharp toothy mouth onto my hand, while saying, “Traaaapinch!”

“OW!” I shouted venomously shaking my hand wildly, “Get it off of me!”

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, hi everyone! I’m Nitros and thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it. I plan on writing more chapters for this and please leave any comments, concerns, or critiques you may have. Also Faroese is a region I, and a few friends, came up with and a friend of mine is working on a map of Faroese and I plan to have that, or a link to it in my signature as soon as possible. Thanks again and please keep watching for any new chapters I put up.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Ooooh, an all new fic!

This is off to a fairly standard, but very solid start because it's well-written. The biggest draw is that this takes place in your own region so you have the opportunity to really make some cool stuff here. Please don't leave us hanging so post more ^^

 

[Dark Soul]

This is enjoyable! As Carmen said, the premise seems a bit generic for what you've written so far, but your sentence building and writing style are quite good, and I'd be interested to read some more of it.

I would like to point out that there's a couple of details you might want to pay more attention to. The biggest issue out of all of these is your capitalization, or rather, lack thereof; Words like 'pokeball' or 'pokemon league' are written 'PokeBall' and 'PokeMon League'. The first letter of a sentence between two pieces of dialogue, no matter how small said sentence is, is capitalized as well.

Hope it helps!

 

[nitros]

Haha, thanks guys! Working on the next chapter now and should have it up some time with in the next two weeks... hopefully.

@ Dark Soul, are you sure about the caps with pokeball and and Pokemon League? I've seen them used as both common and proper nouns. Especailly the 'M' on pokemon, I haven't even seen it done that in the games, so are you sure that that is the proper capitalization?

 

[Shocari]

I'd say on the subject of things like PokeBall, it's a brand name of sorts in the Pokemon World, like Kleenex or whatnot. While they are extremely commonplace, they a specific kind as opposed to Apricorn Balls.

The Pokemon League is most definitely a proper noun, as it is a place of huge importance in the Pokemon World. If it was a typical, tournament-style league that was just for fun and had no real holding on a Trainer's place in the hierarchy, it would be like the president of a corporation. However, since it is so important, it ends up being like the President of the United States.

As to the 'M' in Pokemon, I think it's more of a stylistic choice to represent the shortening of "Pocket Monsters".

Anyway, great story you have going here. I'm always fascinated by regions that people come up with. Are there going to be any Pokemon that you have invented? I'd be quite interested to see some, but I wouldn't mind if there aren't any, either.

Keep it up ^^

 

[nitros]

Gotcha, thanks Shocari. I'll get that edited as soon as I get the next chapter finished. On the point of invented pokemon, I don't plan on creating any, although in the rp of it that a few friends and I am doing, we do have a pokemorph so who knows.

 

[Blazi]

I really liked this! It was written well, in my opinion (But hey, I'm not an english teacher, now am I?), and I didn't see many errors (but again, I wasn't watching very closely for them).

I love the storyline, and I love the Trapinch as a starter. Certainly not a normal starter, but who cares? I'm just wondering what the other lights had...

Anyway, keep up the good work, and I can't wait to see more from you!

 

[nitros]

Chapter 2: Meet, Greet, and Thief

“OW!”

Click.

The camera flashed the second I let out the cry of pain. My dad was at the camera and Miss Abby Stern, her name was actually Stern can you believe it, was at my hand, supposedly bandaging it after my new Pokémon Trapinch had tried to take a bite out of it. Although it felt more like she was trying to make the bite marks go all the way through.

“Alright, Mark, let’s try this one more time,” my dad sighed, “And please don’t cry out this time, we may not be the Department of Motor Vehicles, but we do have a schedule to keep.”

“I wouldn’t be crying out,” I said snatching my hand away from Assistant Stern, “If she wasn’t torturing my mangled hand!”

“Your hands not that bad off,” my dad sighed, “And it is one of the reasons I would have preferred you to have been introduced to your new partner out here. Now be quiet, Abby way back out of the frame of view… and smile.”

I gave my best, I’m-better-than-you-look as the camera clicked once more. I then walked over to the printer and picked up my new Trainer Card, and what can I say, I looked amazing. I then walked over to the others, who were standing by the entrance waiting on me to meet their new Pokémon.

“Humph, about time,” the guy who had been standing under the red light grunted.

“Seriously, Evergreen, could you have taken any longer,” Marla complained.

“Well, you try getting your hand treated by the hag-fiend,” I said waving my bandaged hand at her, only to have the wrappings unravel.

“Oh give it here,” Marla said, snatching my hand and then began re-wrapping my hand, and none to gently I must add, “You know it really isn’t that bad,” she muttered as she worked.

“You say that because it’s not your hand,” I said trying to pull away only to have her dig her fingers into the bite.

Finally she finished and said, “Now we can get to the introductions, Mark, this is Jeff, he was the guy in the brown light,” waving a hand to the guy who had wanted my trapinch, she then move her hand to the only other girl in our group, “This is Cassie, the silver light girl. Finally we have Nate, the guy bathed in red,” She said moving her hand to the other guy before concluding, “Everyone, this is Marky.”

“Hi Marky,” they all said to varying degrees of enthusiasm.

“It’s MARK!” I shouted

“Come on!” Nate said taking out a Pokeball and enlarging it, “Let’s see who we all have!” He then tosses the ball tapping the button as it left his hand. We waited and watched it as the ball went up, and up, and up, and then down, and down, and down, until it hit on his head causing me to burst out laughing.

“Having discipline problems already?” I asked between breaths.

“No! I’m… I’m sure it’s just the wrong ball,” he said pulling Pokeballs out of his pockets.

“Like your one to talk, Marky,” Jeff taunted, holding an enlarged Pokeball in his hand, “But while we’re waiting for Nate to find the correct ball I’ll go. Come on out!” he called clicking the button causing the top to flip open and a red beam to shoot out. The red beam then formed into a small bipedal creature with a rocky exoskeleton, an orange belly, a predominate horn and flaring tail, “Cool. I’ve got a Larvitar! This totally makes up for you getting Trapinch,” He said examining the rock skin pokemon and once finished his observation he then knelt down and held out his hand to the pokemon, “Hi there, Larvitar, I’m Jeff and I’m your new trainer, and I hope we can be friends. How about it?” he asked kindly.

“Lar lar tar,” it said taking his out stretched hand, and then it pulled him in close and punched him in the side causing Jeff to double over in pain.

“That looked like an assurance attack, a rare move for a Larvitar, but not unheard of,” my dad said coming over.

“What did you do to these guys to make them hate us so much?” I asked him in fear.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” my dad denied.

“Its fine Mark,” Jeff said standing back, holding his side. Then to Larvitar, he said, “You know I think I’m going to call you Sergeant Tar. You know like a drill sergeant,” upon hearing this, Sergeant seemed pleased and started marching proudly in circles.

“I have to agree with your dad here, Mark,” Marla said, holding a blue and white, fur covered ball, “This little one likes me a lot.”

“Spheal, spheal!” the fluff ball cried happily, pressing itself against her.

“Hehehe. He’s so warm!” she cried just as happily.

“Hmm, that’s odd,” Professor Evergreen said to himself.

“Yeah,” I agreed, “What creature, human, pokemon or otherwise, would, in its right mind, like her.”

Upon hearing the comments both Spheal and Marla both turned to face us, eyes hungry for blood. Marla whisper something into her pokemon's ear and its body shifted as it grinned an evil grin. It then opened its mouth and let out a chilling breath that coated us with a thick layer of fine snow.

“Sssso cccccold,” my teeth chatter.

“I bebebebelieve that wassss ppppowder sssssnow,” Dad chattered next to me. Two assistants came over, wiped the snow off us and put thermal blankets around us.

“Hmm,” Marla said with approval, “I think I’ll call you Ice Breaker,” the spheal squealed and rubbed against her some more.

“Okay, my turn,” Cassie said quietly, holding her Pokeball in both hands.

“No, wait!” Nate said, “I found it!” he said holding up an enlarged Pokeball.

“Oh, ok then,” She said lowering her Pokeball.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Nate apologized, “If you want to go, you can go.” Well at least he tried to undo his blunder.

“No, no,” She said meekly, “You wanted to go first anyhow, so…”

“Ok! Thanks, lady,” He said, that idiot. He then threw his Pokeball, again hitting it on the button as it left his hand and every one watched as it went up, and up, and up, finally stopping in mid-air, unlatching and letting out a red beam. This time the red beam formed into a small red and orange lizard, which had a beak-like mouth. “Oh cool, it’s a mag-“ Nate started saying before the lizard let out a jet of black ink that splashed him in the face. Unfortunately for the lizard the ink, because it splashed Nate, turned and covered it as well.

“Was that…?” I left unsaid for I hadn’t the slightest clue.

“Magby’s failed smokescreen,” Dad finished for me.

Nate blinked. Magby blinked. Nate blinked again. Magby blinked again. They both burst out laughing.

“Ha-ha, you know InkJet, I think you and I are going to get along swimmingly,” Nate said putting his ink soaked magby on his shoulder.
“Mag mag mag!” It said happily, unfortunately though Inkjets ability, flame body, activated and Nate’s shirt to catch fire. After much yelling and running around in circles on Nate’s part, and much crying on the part of InkJet, an assistant managed to douse the fire with an extinguisher and then managed to clean the ink off of each, though Nate’s shirt was a lost cause. With that done the assistant slapped a pair of fire retardant gloves into Nate’s hands.

“Oh, thanks,” He said pulling on the gloves, “These should make things easier between us don’t you agree?”

“Magby,” InkJet said in an affirmative manner.

“So, I’m guessing it’s my turn, now?” Cassie asked quietly.

“Of course,” Marla said, “You could have gone anytime you wished.”

“Ok,” She said, sounding a little disheartened, stupid Marla. She then brought up her Pokeball again, still held in both hands. Then she clicked the button and the top unlatched Trapinch except that it had a slightly larger and pointier head and a horn on its back. Also unlike Trapinch the new pokemon skin was silvery in color and looked like it was made out of metal, “It’s an… an aron,” she said, as it looked at her with mournful eyes, “ Oh what’s wrong steely?” Steely, really?

The aron, Steely, then yawned and then a loud rumbling sound was heard coming from it.

“Oooh! I know!” She said in her loudest voice yet, “You’re hungry!” She then walked over to Assistant Stern’s desk and took the steel, adjustable, desk lamp before walking back over to Aron, “Here you go, dig in!”

“My lamp!” Assistant Stern said in horror as the iron armor pokemon dug into the meal greedily. The assistant who had helped us before, after coming back from putting away the thermal blankets, sighed and handed my backpack to someone else to clean out and restock. The assistant then walked over, and began playing tug-of-war with Steely and the lamp. Upon finally emerging victorious, thanks to the pleas of Cassie to her new partner, he handed the ruined lamp back to Assistant Stern and then gave an small iron bar to the Aron and a small grey orb of similar appearance to that of a Pokeball to Cassie murmuring something about it being an Item-Ball and hold more iron bars. He then huffed off and then came back and shoved my tan and brown backpack at me, letting go mere seconds after I got a grip on it.

“Well then,” Jeff asked, “Now that we are all introduced, how about we a have a battle royale? Everyone for themselves?” Everyone gave varying degrees of agreement, everyone but me that is.

“Hold on,” I said, pulling out Trapinch’s Pokeball, “We haven’t met everyone. Come on out, Trapinch,” then, holding the ball by its red lid, I hit the button causing the white half to unlatch, and the red beam out which formed into the Pokémon that tried to take out my hand.

“Trap,” Trapinch said then turned to Sergeant Tar and the other Pokémon and began talking to them.

“Now what to call you?” I wondered out loud, and then noticing a thin layer of brown dust where ever Trapinch had stepped, dawning came upon me. “I know! I’ll call you Dusts!” I called to the trapinch, which caused everyone to look at me like I was nuts. “What?”

“Really, Mark? That’s the best you could come up with?” Marla asked, shaking her head.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jeff said, “Lets battle!”

“If you’re going to battle, may I please ask that take it outside?” Dad asked.

“Alright,” everyone said leaving. Once we got outside we all gathered in a circle, our Pokemon in front of us, waiting for someone to make the first move when a phone goes off. For a moment no one does anything thinking that it’s someone else’s. When no one picked up there phone we all started scrambling for our own. The others found theirs first, as I had to search through a multitude of pockets, all too negative results. Once I found my phone I knew it was mine and opened it right before it went to voice mail.

“Mark. Mark! Mark are you there?” The male voice on the other end said hastily, “Mark! Please, please be there. Mark! Oh please answer me!”

“Whoa! Calm down,” I said in to the phone, “Who are- Wait, Kyle is that you?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kyle said from the other end, “Oh go- Mark I need you to get over… now!” he sound like he was near hysterics, what had happened?

“Alright, Kyle, I will,” I told my best friend, “But I need you to tell me where you are.”

“My parents place, at Caile Island,” Kyle said, “Please hurry.”

“I will,” I said, before the shutting the phone. I then returned Dusts and ran over to my bike. I jumped on and began pedaling away. The others weren’t far behind me, for some reason, with Marla at the lead.

“Mark,” Marla asked, catching up, “What's wrong? What’s happened?”

“I don’t entirely know,” I replied, “all I know is that Kyle’s in trouble.”

“Who’s Kyle?” Cassie asked.

“Mark’s best friend,” Marla answered for me.

“Ok, where are we heading?” Jeff asked.

“Caile Island,” I said pedaling harder knowing that, at best, it would take us more than a day to get there from the battle city harbor.

“Then why are we going this way?” Nate asked, and then explained, “I’m also from Caile Island and I know of boat not far from here that will take us there within a few hours.”

We all skid to a stop and looked at him in shock. I then turned my bike around and said, “Lead the way.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The boat ride took significantly less time than I expected the Battle City Ferry would have, although it was a good deal rougher, and we made it to Caile Island with a few hours of light left. Unfortunately though the boat docked on the opposite side of island as to the Pokemon day care and nursery where Kyle’s parents lived so we had to bike the rest of the way there, making it roughly dusk by the time I walked through the busted door of his parent’s house to have guns pointed at my face and Growlithe growling at me.

“Hands up! We are the Police!” one of the gun holding officers said.

“I can tell,” I said, eyeing the uniform, the badge and gun as I slowly raised my hands.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Kyle said shoving through the uniforms, pushing down their gun arms once he broke their circle.

“Sir, please get back,” The officer said bring the gun back up, “These people just tried to break in.”

“No, they didn’t,” Kyle said knocking the officer’s arm down again, “I called them here. Or at least I called Mark. I’ve never seen the others before,” Spots Marla and points at her, “Especially her, I think she looks especially suspicious, don’t you?” The uniforms faced Marla, guns raised and the girls let out a squeak of fear, “I was joking!” Kyle said to the apparently dimwitted officers, then to me he said, “These guys have no since of humor. Come on in you guys.” He then moved through the officers, creating a hole for us to walk through, the hole shrunk a bit when Marla passed through, causing another squeak from her as she ran foreword into my back.

“Ow!” I said, turning to find her shaking.

“They won’t stop watching me,” she said, for once her voice meek. She always did crack under pressure. I sighed.

“Kyle, could you please do something about the uniforms?” I asked, rubbing my hand against my forehead, in an attempt to ward off an oncoming headache. Kyle turned on a dime his blazing.

“Take! A! Break!” Kyle shouted at the officers, who turned to look each other and then shrugged, put away their guns and, well, relaxed. Some leaned against a wall keeping an eye on the outside while others lounged, played cards or took care of the growlithe.

“So what happened to this place,” I asked after sitting down at what had once been a very nice table, now ruined with cracks and pieces missing out of the wood. As I looked around I found the rest of the room to be in similar states of disrepair, with pictures knocked off the walls and torn and pieces of glass and ceramics covering the floor. There were multiple holes in the walls, a few of which were large enough to walk through.

“From what I understand of it there was a break in and the thieves or whoever knocked out my parents and then tried to break into our egg ward. Luckily Kang and Channy, our kangaskhan and chansey, where back there and managed to find them off but they were both badly hurt and were rushed to the pokemon center while mom and dad were being sent to the hospital, and many of the eggs were knocked off their shelves during the battle and…” Kyle concluded bitterly.

“And your egg?” I asked, concerned.

“Oh it’s fine,” Kyle said brightening, then held up a pokeball, “Better than fine actually!”

“Oh cool! Well, let us see,” Marla said, back to her annoying self now that the cops had stopped watching her.

“But who would attack a pokemon nursery?” Cassie asked, after everyone ewed and awed at Kyle’s baby electric type, Elekid or simply Elky.

“And that, dear girl, is the question,” A new voice added. We all turned as a man wearing a brown trench coat, over a simple white shirt and blue pants walked in through one of the holes in the wall.

“Ah, Detective Brian,” Kyle said, “I liked to introduce you to my friend, Mark,” He waves his hand in front of me, “And his friends,” moved his hand past each of the others who, when his hand passed by them they each said a greeting as well as their name, “Everyone, this is Detective Brian, he’s with the international police. So you find any clues detective?”

“Very few actually,” the detective said, with a frown, “At first we thought that this was the work of the criminal organization Shade, but recent events have put that theory in doubt.”

“What events?” I asked.
“Well, the Shade attacked the Pokémon League Tournament earlier today,” Detective Brian said, “In fact, Kyle here got lucky, if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re so far from Battle City and that I’m one of the newest member of the International Police Force, we would have been there instead of here.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure that he’s so lucky that he got stuck with the IPF’s best little greenhorn,” Marla said sarcastically. The detective laughed. How odd.

“Hey now, don’t count against me until you’ve seen me work, I’ll have you know I graduated at the top of my class at the academy. Any who we’re done here,” He said, pulling out six business cards and a pen. Five of which he passed to me, Marla and the others, saying, “If any of you come across any information about the Shade or what happened here please give me a call,” And then, to Kyle, he handed over the last card, after writing something on the back, “There is the number for good building contractor, he’s not exactly cheap but his is a sucker for a sob story and little ones,” he then turned to the police who were roaming around the house and stuck his hand in the air and waved a finger in a circle, “Come on guys time to wrap it up and move out!” After making sure everyone had left, he turned back, before leaving himself, and said, “We have people watching the house and your parents and pokemon. If anything turns up from the evidence we sent to the lab, we’ll give you a call.” With he turned and went out the battered doorway. Kyle then sighed and slumped in his chair.

“Thank you,” Kyle said, looking very tired, “Everybody thank you for coming even though most of you don’t know me.”

“Hey it’s cool,” Jeff said, with Cassie nodding fervently, “It was defiantly one way to start off our journey.”

“Besides when I heard that something had happened to one of the residents of my family’s island, I had to get involved,” Nate said.

At first Kyle looked at Nate with confusion, then with shock and disgust as he realized who was sitting at his dinner table. “You’re Nate Caile?”

“The one and only,” Nate said smiling, then examining Kyle’s expression asked, “You don’t like me very much do you?”

“You the son and heir of my landlords,” Kyle said, “Makes you a little difficult to like.”

“Ok, then,” he retorted.

“Although, I do know something that you could do to raise your standings a little,” Kyle said, mysteriously.

“Oh, really? And what’s that?” Nate asked in disbelief.

“Well actually, it’s a request to all of you,” Kyle asked, now nervous, “I can’t run this place by myself and make sure the house gets fixed. Could you all please help me out?”

“Sure,” I said, “You know I’ll all ways have your back buddy.”

“I’m game,” Marla shrugged, “but only for a little while.” And with that the others, excluding Nate, gave their agreement to help for as long as they could fend off their instincts to travel.

“Hmm, fine,” Nate finally said, after enduring everyone’s stairs for a few minutes, “The Caire Island Day Care Center and Nursery shall have the full support and co-operation of the Caire house until such time as this place is able to hold its own.”

“Thank you, everyone,” Kyle said gratefully, tears in his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shortly after our arrival Kang and Channy returned to from the Pokemon Center followed soon by Kyle’s parents. The months passed and slowly Kyle’s home was put to rights and the Day Care re-opened. Slowly it came time to go with the first leaving being Jeff, then Cassie, shortly followed by Nate. Marla was second last to go, beating me by mere days… wanting to make sure that Kyle’s parents were fully recovered before she left. Before each of them left however, they were each given an egg from the group of eggs that the trainers before them were unable or unwilling to take care of. Eventually it was it my turn to leave the day care center, and when I made the announcement I was taken back to the incubation, and led to a set of shelves, upon which rested Pokemon eggs, and was told to take one of my choosing. I walked up and down the aisle between the shelves looking at the eggs until I found one that I just couldn’t take my eyes off of and knew that this was the egg, my egg. After choosing my egg, I packed my things and left for the port with a ticket for the first of Faroese’s two largest islands in one hand and my egg in the other. I looked out over my shoulder at Kyle, Elky, and their family. It had been fun and me and Dusts had grown closer, he no longer tried to take of my hand, but it was time for us move on and start our own journey. A journey through the Island region of Faroese.

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Hey thanks everyone for all of your comments and I hope you all enjoy this latest chapter. Again if you find anything that I could improve upon please tell me.

 

[Carmen Lopez]

(Been meaning to read this for a couple of days now).

And our villains are finally introduced and the adventure begins. Once again, a solid chapter~ I find the unconventional starter choices pretty interesting and in your case it's a nice deviation from the norm and not Mary Sue-ish at all. I can't wait to see how your characters and region develop from here.

 

[nitros]

Chapter 3:Battle on the Kyogre

The cruise ship, SS Kyogre, was slower the boat that I had taken to Caile Island but as I was no longer in a rush I found the trip to be much more pleasurable.

“So, Dusts,” I asked, while polishing the egg, “What do you think is going to hatch from this?” Trapinch, who was lying next to me on a beach chair, looked at me and yawned. “Yeah, well, who needs your opinion anyway?”

“Oh cool!” A girl said, walking up, “A trapinch and an egg you must be a Pokémon trainer!”

“Yep, I’m Mark,” I said holding out my hand, “And you are?”

“Carrie and I am a trainer too,” The girl, Carrie, said, taking my hand, “How about a battle?”

“Sure,” I said, putting the egg away then standing up, “But don’t you think that going at it here, on a boat, a little dangerous?”

“Its fine, this cruise ship is meant to handle trainers, which means it was built to handle battles,” Carrie said, “but if you want we can battle by league regulations instead of the Document Regulations.”

Document regulations, the set of standards laid down when ever an inter-island war was brought to a close. Though there had not been such a war in close to a hundred years, all the documents still held high sway here in Faroese especially amongst trainers, with its one specific rule for battles, the trainer MUST fight alongside their Pokémon, allowing them to attack, and be attacked by, their opponent and their Pokémon. However with the coming of the Pokémon League some fifty to sixty odd years ago allowed some peace of mind to trainers with low tolerance for pain or bad health insurance by giving them a way to just have their Pokémon do the fighting. All things considered I wasn’t afraid to go by Document Regulations but that didn’t mean I didn’t know my own strength or the fact that I knew that me and Dusts just weren’t connected enough yet for that kind of battling. Plus I didn’t know what Pokémon she had and I didn’t want to risk the possibility of spending the rest of the trip in the ships infirmary.

“Thanks,” I said to her, then to Dusts I asked, “So what do you think partner, you up to a battle.”

It looked at me, got up and waddle in front me facing the other trainer, “TraaaaPinch!” It barked at Carrie, snapping it large mouth shut.

“Oh this one’s got spunk,” Carrie said, with a smile, “Looks like this one might actually be a challenge for you, wouldn’t you agree, Ralts?” She pulled out a Pokeball as she said this and then tossed it into the air, causing a mainly white bipedal creature formed from the red energy. Although the main part of its body was white its head was covered in a type of green hair, with two red horns sticking out of it, one in the front and one in the back.

“Cool,” I said, pulling out my Pokedex. I then pointed the electronic encyclopedia at the creature.

“Ralts,” it said in mechanical voice of indeterminable gender, “The feeling Pokémon. A Ralts has the power to sense the emotions of people and Pokémon with the horns on its head. It takes cover if it senses any hostility.”

“Well, in that case let’s send him running,” I said to Dusts, “Use bite on Ralts!” Dusts darted forwards, almost impossibly quick for a creature of its size, it mouth open closing over the Ralts main horn, causing the psychic Pokémon to cry out in pain.

“Calm down, Raltsy, and use Confusion” Carrie said, the Ralts quieting as it skin had a pinkish- purple aura surround it. Then that same aura surrounded Dusts and sent him flying off his prey and toward the edge of the ship. Dusts would have gone flying off the ship, the previous momentum of the attack still propelling him even though the glow had faded away, if it hadn’t been for a tall passenger walking in the Trapinch’s flight path. When Dusts saw the passenger he opened his mouth and just barely managed to close it around the poor guy’s hair.

“Dusts!” I said, running over to the guy who was trying to remove the Ant Pit Pokémon, “Let go of his hair! Now!”

“Trap!” It said, spitting out the guy. It then ran back in front of me facing the Ralts, “Pinch!”

“Alright, let’s show them we’re still in this,” I said eagerly, “Use Bite again!” Dusts ran toward the Ralts, his mouth wide open again, but this time he was slower although if it was injury exhaustion or wariness I do not know.

“Keep it at a distant with Confusion,” She commanded, as the Ralts pinkish aura returned, but this time instead of surrounding Dusts it sent the energy foreword in a swirling wave.

“Dusts, left!” I shouted, jumping in the same direction, out of the way of the attack. However instead dodging like I had wanted it simply stopped running and looked at me in confusion. Then the attack hit, sending Dusts rocketing toward the edge of the ship again. “Dusts!” I switched directions and ran straight into the path of Dusts and the confusion attack. When I tried to get back up, after falling from the combined force of my flying ground type and the psychic type attack, I found that the world spun at an alarming right and sat back down trying to keep my stomach in my stomach.

“Oh wow,” The girl said, coming over without stretched hand, although the thought of standing or shaking anything sent my stomach into the pains of nausea, “I didn’t know the Ralts could confuse trainers as well as their Pokémon.”

“NOW THAT IS ENOUGH!” A gruff voice sounded as a bulky sailor brushed his way through the crowd that had gathered unnoticed during our battle, “This is the viewing deck NOT the battle deck! You do not battle here, you view here and if you can NOT follow those rules, then I SUGGEST that you return to your cabins!” this outburst from the sailor was met by grunts, groans and various complaints from the audience.

“Hey, man,” The tall passenger, whose hair had saved Dusts, said, coming forward, “Let them be. No one got hurt,” he rubs his head thoughtfully, “not hurt seriously, anyhow, and there hasn’t been anything to view up here in I don’t know how long, so these two were a welcome respite. Wouldn’t you agree everyone?” The crowd gave various calls of agreement and the sailors face started turning bright angry red.

“Hey, Everyone,” I said, managing to stand up and recall the dangerously tottering Dusts, “Me and Dusts here have had it, we can’t battle any more today… well maybe Dusts can but,” I let go of the railing and tried to take a step forward only to have to grab back hold of the rail to keep from falling, “…I think it would be best to return to my cabin. Um, Carrie you win and all, but um I was wondering if you could grab my bag and egg for me?”

“Sure,” She said, going back to where I had been sitting before the battle and picked up my bag and egg while the dispersing crowd grumbled in complaint of their enjoyment being cut short, “Uh where’s your room?”

“Its room 308,” I said, again trying to walk without use of the rail. As I fell again the guy from before grabbed my arm.

“Hold on let me help,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said, allowing myself to place my weight on the stranger as we walked towards the stairs that would lead to the rooms.

“Hey kid,” The sailor from before said as we passed him on the way, “sleep it off, you’ll have your sea legs back once you gotten some.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, as I passed, feeling the boats rocking which had been undetectable before. We then made our way down the stairs and then on the deck which held the living quarters, and thanks in part to the fact that Carrie had the room next door to mine we found my cabin after a little while. Once Carrie had set my egg up on the shelf next to my bed and promised to get Dusts healed then returned to me, I managed to walk over to my bed and thus allowed myself to fall into the swirling darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I woke up, despite that my head felt better, I found it difficult to breath. After a bit of maneuvering I felt a movement on my chest and felt my heart skip a beat. Then Dusts stuck his face.

“Trap?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I said picking up my oversized ant and removing him from my chest. I then sat up and was happy to find that the world was no longer spinning, so I stood up and was overjoyed to find that I did not fall flat on my face. I was feeling so good that I decided to take a walk around on deck. So I left my room, after returning Dusts and making sure my egg was warm and secure, and walked back on to the viewing deck and caught my breath. It was night and this far away from the city and its bright lights, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Over head the stars shone like jewels in pitch black, moonless, fabric while the sea reflected their light and the waves from ship caused them dance. Then new stars appeared in the ocean that the sky did not imitate, and then from the light of these new stars I saw the outlines chinchou, lanturn, staryu, and starmie. Then a rapidly ascending shadow scattered the stars as a large manta-ray like creature leapt out of the water causing me to fall from surprise, and over the ship then back into the ocean. “Wow,” I breathed.

“I thought I’d find you here,” I heard a female voice say from the door way to the lower decks. I looked around and caught my breath for the second time that night. Carrie was standing in the door way, but unlike before when she was wearing a green t-shirt and blue jeans, she was now wearing a simple white night gown which made her look like the human incarnation of the moon. “I just never expected you to be on your rear; you aren’t still confused are you?” She asked, walking over and offering her hand.

“No, a mantine just surprised me is all,” I said, taking her hand and got up.

“A mantine, really?” Carrie asked, looking over the railing into the sea.

“Yep,” I said, once again admiring the night.

“So, where you are heading?” Carrie asked, turning around and leaning against the rail.

“Don’t know yet,” I admitted after some thought, “I guess I’m going to challenge some of the gyms on Vandler Island, but I’m not entirely sure where to start. What about you?”

“I’m heading to Jadius Village to get my Pokedex,” She answered, then asked, “Hey, why don’t you come with me? I mean then I can get my Pokedex and you can find out which is the best gym for you and your trapinch to challenge.”

I shuddered at the thought of returning home but, however, the thought of traveling with someone, especially someone like Carrie, seemed to offset my disgust of home. “Alright,” I said, “let’s do it.”

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Yea! Over a hundred views so far. Thanks for all the support. And thanks for the comments Carmen. I hope to have the next chapter up as soon as possible and again please leave your comments, critiques, and corrections. Again thanks everyone!

 

[Psycho Monkey]

This is pretty good so far Nitros. I like the originality of you using your own region and your choice of starters being different from the norm. The story is off to a great start and your characters are very well developed so far.

One thing I'd like to point out though is for you to watch your spelling and grammar. As a writer myself, I know how easy it is miss something as you type it because you're already thinking about what's going to happen next. Proof reading after you finish the chapter should fix the majority of your errors.

Anyways, keep up the great work! I look forward to exploring Faroese with Mark, Dusts, and Carrie.

 

[nitros]

Chapter 4: The Hatching Egg and the Burning Flames Part 1


“Alright, Mark, we need you to focus and remember anything you can from after you left the S.S. Kyogre,” Detective Brian said, handing me a foam cup. I took the cup and mumbled something incoherent. I tried to remember, I honestly did, but it was so hard and all I wanted to do was fall back into the fog that was slowly encroaching upon my conscious mind. I looked then into the cup and saw the water rippling, rippling, rippling, rippling, and then the cup and the water both burst into flames. I let out a scream and dropped the flaming cup. Brian sighed looked sad for some reason, then I looked back at cup I had dropped expecting fire and flame, but instead all that met my gaze was spilled water and foam.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~one week ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I took a deep breath, taking in the salt smell of the harbor. It was good to be on land again.

“Now onward To Jadius!” Carrie said, marching forward confidently.

“Actually, first onward to the Pokémon Center and then to the Pokemart,” I contradicted.

“Aw,” She complained, “Why do we have to do that?”

“Because,” I explained, “My egg’s been shaking a lot and making noise and I want to get it checked out before we get started. And,” I set my egg gently between my feet and then took off my bag, unzipped the main pocket, which I used to hold supplies, and upended the bag, “I’m out of supplies.”

“Oh,” She said then, after a moment’s thought, nodded, “Now that I think about it so am I. Good luck then that you remembered you own lack isn’t it?”

“It’s not luck, its good planning,” I said, heading off to the Pokémon Center, “Anyhow this way we can check out a map before we go and keep from getting lost.” As I walked toward the Pokémon Center I took stock of the town. Compared to Jadius village it was quite modern, most of the buildings were made out of concrete or dry wall, while compared to the steel clad Battle City it had a long ways to go. The Pokémon Center though was made in similar likeness to the battle city one, although a good deal smaller. Its iconic bright red roof standing out against the dark red shingling that accompanied the port town’s buildings. As I walked up to the Center I was somewhat taken aback by the automatic sliding doors that opened in front of me but recovered my composure and went inside and straight for the front desk.

“Hello and welcome to the Carol Town Pokémon Center,” The Nurse said, “how may I assist you today?”

“Yes,” I said holding up my egg, “I’d like to have this guy get a check up if that’s ok?”

“Of course,” the nurse said, taking the egg from me and handing it to her chansey assistant. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Yes actually,” I said, pulling out Dusts’ Pokeball, “Dusts here is a trapinch, and we’ve been out at sea for a while and I just wanted to make sure that he’s doing ok.”

“Of course,” The nurse said taking my Pokeball. As the nurse then turned to put Dusts on the healing machine Carrie walked up to the counter and placed two Pokeballs down.

“Um you mind taking care of mind as well?” Carrie asked, as the nurse turned back around. The nurse then sighed and picked up Carrie’s Pokeballs and set them on the healing machine as well.

“I didn’t know you had two Pokémon,” I stated, noticing the second Pokeball.

“Yeah the second one isn’t really mine,” She explained, “Solstice belonged to my sister, but when she died, I inherited him. He doesn’t really like me all that much, but he tolerates me sense we’re both on the same mission.”

“Mission?”

“Yeah, we’re going to make those people who killed my sister pay,” Carrie said, her normally jovial eyes and voice were both cold and dead. I swallowed quietly, very glad I never killed anyone especially not her sister. “Of course I know you had nothing to do with it, Mark,” She said her voice back to normal.

“Alright,” the nurse said walking back over with our Pokémon, “Your Pokémon are all perfectly healthy. However you egg is going to take a little longer so please come back in, say, a half hour?”

“Sure,” I said, taking Dusts Pokeball and then, turning to Carrie, said, “Time to go shopping.”

“Great,” she said sarcastically, turning around and starting toward the door.

“What you don’t you like shopping?” I asked, following her toward the door.

“No, not really,” She said, then she stopped and turned to me, “You don’t have a problem with that do you?” she snapped.

“No ma’am,” I said, a little taken aback by her seemingly sudden anger. Just then the automatic doors opened and the tall man, from earlier on board the Kyogre, walked through them with a Duskull floating above his shoulder.

“I know you two would be here,” the man said, walking toward us.

“Hey, aren’t you the guy my trapinch tried to shave?” I asked, laughing as I did.

He smiled and laughed with me before saying, “I am indeed,” he then stuck out his hand, waiting to speak till after to grip it, “I’m Darius and you are?” I shook his hand and gave him my name all the while taking in his appearance for the first, because before I had either been too confused or to hot-blooded to notice or care. He was wearing a disheveled suit which on another person would look sad and somber but on him seemed light hearted and carefree. While I was assessing I could feel him, and his Duskull, assessing me and Carrie as well. This was not a trainer to be taken lightly. “I have a feeling that the two of you will become outstanding trainers,” he said, before laughing again. Once he stopped laughing he asked, “So where are you two heading?”

“Why do you want to know?” Carrie said hotly.

I shrugged while saying, “Jadius village, for the time being anyhow.” Which earned me an angry glare from Carrie, however I didn’t care. Although I could tell that Darius was an exceptionally strong trainer I liked his personality and could see no harm in telling him where we were going.

“Oh really?” He said, genuinely surprised, “Would you believe me if I told you me I was going as well?”

“Not really,” Carrie snarled. Darius looked from me to her in confusion as I did the same.

He then looked back at me and asked, “What is her problem?”

“I don’t know,” I replied equally confused.

“My problem is that THING,” She said pointing to the Duskull.

“What’s wrong with Lucy?” Darius asked confused, “She’s just a baby and as harmless as a fly.”

“It is a filthy ghost, a wretch of the night,” She snapped, before grabbing my arm. Carrie then dragged me through the doors, which opened just quick enough to keep us from crashing through them, while saying, “Come on, Mark. You wanted to go shopping, so we’re going shopping.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we finally got back to the Pokémon Center we were, I mean I was, painfully laden down with bags. For not liking to shop, Carrie did it with a passion I had only ever seen when Marla and I had been paired up on our weekends away from the Trainer’s School. I would not be surprised, that when I next checked my pokedex, that all the meager funds I had managed to gather would be all but depleted.

“Well that was therapeutic,” Carrie said, walking backing inside the Pokémon Center, and straight through Lucy, much to her displeasure and Darius, Lucy, and my humor. “So you’re still here,” Carrie said after regaining her composure.

“Of course,” Darius said, “the Pokémon Center is public property and as long as we don’t break any of the centers rules while we are here, Lucy and I can stay as long as we want.”

“As long as you two don’t break any rules huh?” Carrie said, pulling out one of her Pokeballs. I quickly grabbed her hand that held the Pokeball and kept her from pressing the latch.

“A Pokemon Center is a place for all trainers and all Pokémon to gather for healing and protection, you start a battle in one of them you know you won’t be allowed to any of them, ever again,” I said slowly, keeping her from releasing her Pokémon. She looked me in the eyes, murder in hers, before yanking her arm away, and shrinking the ball before putting it away.

“Fine,” She said, turning and walking to the Centers cafeteria, away from Darius. I then walked over to Darius and set down the bags and shrugged.

“I honestly don’t know what her problem is,” I said, as I began storing all of the supplies we had bought in to small silvery orbs similar in design to Pokeballs, “But I guess that’s mute point, she’s going to have to learn how to deal with you, right?”

“What?” Darius asked, confused.

“Well we are all going to Jadius,” I stated, “So it would be best if we all traveled together.” Darius thought for a second then nodded his head in agreement with my logic.

“So when do we leave?” he asked.

I was about to reply when Carrie came over with a tray of food, for both Pokémon and humans, and snarled, “What do you mean by ‘we’?”

“He’s going to be traveling with us,” I said to Carrie, and then to Darius, “I was hoping to leave today.”

“Why must he come and we don’t even know what direction we are going so how can you say we’re leaving today,” Carrie demanded. I sighed then pulled out a map of Faroese, that I had bought earlier, from one of my coat pockets and began opening it, stopped, cleared the table some more, handed Carrie the Item-balls that contained her purchases, and then resumed opening the map till it opened to show a large detailed map of the island region I called home.

“First there is safety in numbers,” I explained, examining the map, “Secondly, we are here,” I pointed at the northern tip of the northern, large island, “And Jadius is here,” I pointed to a point to the south of the island, near the Great Bridge which connected the northern large island to the southern large island, “the fastest path would be if we went this way, taking us about a week,” drew a straight line through the island between the town and the village, “however, it takes us through some densely forested area which is renowned for its aggressive Pokémon.”

“It will also take us past The Temple of the Firsts,” Darius noted, which I nodded in agreement with. I gulped at the thought of going near the temple which was said to host to host the petrified forms of the first legendaries.

“It’s just an old shrine,” I said, more in attempt to assure myself than to counter Darius.

“Which no person or Pokémon has been able to get into, ghost, psychic or otherwise,” Darius countered back, then added mysteriously, “That is, until recently.” I gulped again. I had heard the rumors, that after attacking the Pokémon league and stealing that year’s special prize, one the ancestral treasures that the gym leaders of Faroese are supposed to protect, the criminal organization The Shade had made their way to the Temple of the Firsts and after clashing with trainers, who had been participating in the tournament earlier and who had followed The Shade, the treasures on both sides of the conflict awake and the doors to the temple were blown wide open. The Shade then had attempted to awaken one of the first, the lord of darkness and the first Darkrai, Darkaus, from his stony state. However the father of all Dragons and the first rayquaza, Rayquazax, had awoken first and banished all who had entered the temple, sending the treasures away, back to their respective gym leaders, and then sealing the doors once more before returning to his own stony slumber. Or so the rumors went and I tried not to hold much faith in rumors, although this particular one sent shivers down my spine. What if one of the First had awoken, what then would happen to Faroese? Before when the Firsts had been awake there was war between the Islands as each of the Firsts had vied for territory and power and now? Now that the gym leaders had replaced the guardians, the human liaisons between the Firsts and each islands population, what would happen? I shook my head and repeated myself. I then drew a line along the coast line of the Northern Island, changing the subject.

“We could also take the coastal path which is, other than other trainers, the much safer route. However it would take us anywhere from twice to three times as long,” I said, and then, wishing that Darius would say something about wants to go to the temple, said, “Personally I think we should go along the coast.”

“I disagree,” Darius said, much to my delight in the knowledge that Carrie would more than likely disagree with him simply for the sake of ruining his day, “I think that the challenge of going through the forest would be rewarding, and the experience of visiting the Temple of the Firsts inspirational.”

“I hate to say this,” She said slowly, after finishing off her food and calling out her Pokémon so they could eat as well, “But I have to say that I agree with, Darius.”

“What!” I said, not entirely positive of what I had heard.

“Yeah I know, shocking,” she retorted sarcastically, then more seriously continued, “But fact is I really want to get to Jadius as soon as possible and meet Professor Evergreen, and if it means having to trek through a forest with some rowdy Pokémon, so be it.” I sighed and shrugged my shoulders in defeat. I then folded up the map and put it away before heading over to the Nurses desk.

“Ah, there you are,” the nurse said, smiling as I walked up, “I am happy to report that your egg is in perfect health and could hatch at any time.”

“That’s great news,” I said in response, truthfully ecstatic at the news, although I doubt my expression showed it.

“That it is,” the nurse, as she pressed a button on her desk phone and said into the speaker, “Chansey could you kindly bring the egg from earlier?”

“Chan chan sey,” Chansey’s voice sounded back through the telephones speaker.

“She will be up in a moment,” the nurse translated, and I responded with the appropriate pleasantries. True to what the nurse had said Chansey was soon walking out of the back room holding my egg in some kind of glass jar. Chansey hand me the jar and I quickly began examined it. The top and bottom was made of some kind yellow-ish metal, and the top was just loose enough to be pulled out. I then noticed that at the tip of the lid was a miniaturized Pokeball, which I assumed was for the pokemon that hatched from the egg. I then examined the glass that took up most of the egg jar. While it looked like simple glass, I could tell by the feel of it that it was much stronger than everyday window glass.

“That’s to help protect your egg while you were travelling,” the nurse informed me, as I finished examined the jar, “But make sure you take it out before it hatches otherwise it may have a difficult time hatching.”

“Thank you, miss,” I said, turning back toward the table, then stopped and turned back to the nurse, “Um, wouldn’t you happen to know what’s going to hatch from my egg, would you?” the nurse simply smilled and shrugged, leaving my question hanging so I turned around once more and walked over to Carrie and Darius. “Ok, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” I told them, and with that we were soon out of the pokemon center and on our way. The edge of the forest wasn’t that far from town so we were able to make good head way into the forest’s depth before night fell and our decision to set up camp. It was a simple set up of three sleeping bags and a fire ring. After gathering the wood and neatly placing the wood into the ring came the point of lighting the fire which, despite Darius’ offer of having Lucy using will-o-wisp to light it, Carrie insisted upon doing herself.

“Solstice appear,” Carrie called throwing her other Pokeball into the air, which unlatched and released a large rock-like pokemon in the form of a sun with a face.

“Sooooool,” the Solrock seemed to complain.

“I know you don’t like to be called out,” Carrie beseeched her stone faced companion, “But could you please light the camp fire for us?” The meteorite Pokémon was silent for a moment then its eyes glowed red and a speck of fire appeared at the tip of one of its spikes. The flame then lanced forward but instead of heading towards the pile of kindling it arched towards carries hair, effectively setting it ablaze. I sighed and watched for a moment at the otherwise hilarious sight of Darius chasing a smoldering Carrie with a bottle of water, and then knelt by the stack of wood and pulled a pack of water-proof matches out of one of my pockets and got to work starting the fire. I had just gotten the larger sticks put on top of the flames when I heard a splash and high-pitched squeal, so I looked up to find a drenched Carrie looking at a surprised Darius with death in her eyes. I had just looked back to fire ignoring the almost literal slaughter that was going on before me when an overly loud snap punctured the night. We all instantly started scanning the outline of our camp site with our eyes and all around us were small dark figures, the largest figure being at least a head or two shorter than the average person and a great deal larger than its fellows.

“Shift,” The larger shape growled menacingly, stepping into the light to reveal itself to be a Shiftry. Following their elder’s lead, an army of Nuzleaf and Seedots walk into the light as well, surrounding the group.

“D-dark types,” Carrie said, moving away from Darius and behind Solstice.

“Yeah,” Darius said, calling out Lily as I called Dusts, “But they’re also grass types, so, Lily use will-o-wisp!” The young Duskull then floated high above us as five purple, ghostly flames surrounded it. However before the poor ghost could unleash its flames a barrage of dark, shadowy orbs, that were without a doubt Shadow Balls, where launched by the Nuzleaf at it knocking it onto the ground unconscious, effectively dousing the ghost flames. “Idiot,” Darius berated himself, as he returned Lucy, “Should have brought my other Pokémon with me!”

“Alright my turn,” Carrie said, from behind her Solrock, “Solstice use fire spin.” Without comment or complaint two globs of fire appeared at the points to its side. The meteorite then began slowly spin leaving a thin thread of flame behind and beside the points as they traveled, the thread becoming thicker with each successful rotation. The Shiftry however walked forward and raised an arm and waved it forward releasing some of the leaves from its hands that were then sent straight at the Solrock in the form of a Razor Leaf attack. I quickly grabbed the stick which I had put on the flames, now minutes before, which was now luckily a blaze, and ran forward, with Dusts at my side, into the path of the Razor Leaves brandishing my flaming stick, burning the majority of the leaves although one passed me cutting a gash into my cheek. Dusts then jumped up and snapped at the leaf, biting down it and then swallowing it whole.

“Good job Dusts,” I praised, looking down at the large ant.

“Shif,” The shiftry said.

“Tra-aaaaaaa!” Dusts shouted, at first at the encouragement, then in pain from the Bullet Seed attacks that hit him from the Seedot.

“No!” I shouted as Dusts collapsed. I then returned him to his ball before further damage could be done to him and the Bullet Seeds then directed themselves at me. The pain was bearable though, because it was at that moment that the fire spin was unleashed, or so I thought as a wave of heat and wind passed me by and the Bullet Seed attack ceased. But when I looked up, to my great despair, I saw that the fire spin had not been launched by Solstice but had instead been drawn away by Shiftry as it started creating a whirlwind of grass and leaves that could easily be identified as the move Leaf Storm which it then launched at Solstice, blowing me away and knocking out our last hope as Ralts’ attacks would be ineffective to all but the seedot. I slowly picked myself back up, grabbed my smoldering stick, which had been knocked out of my hand when Leaf Storm had struck, and backed up toward the fire as Carrie and Darius did the same.

“I-I don’t want to die,” Carrie whispered, “N-not like this.”

“I know what you mean,” Darius remarked, with a defeated calm in his voice, “I never would have thought that I’d be going out like this.”

“Hey we’re not dead yet!” I said, brandishing my stick before I turn around sticking it back in the fire. As I relit the stick I noticed my egg sitting near the fire, and thought to myself that it was sad that I would never see it hatch as another part of my brain screamed that it seemed to be glowing. I gave the egg a second glance and shook my head; it must have just been the firelight playing tricks on my mind. I then stood up and held my branch out in front of me and said, “As long as we remember that, we’ve got a chance!” I could sense the others nodding behind me and grabbing and lighting their own sticks to face the oncoming Pokémon with.

“Shif!” the Shiftry said raising an arm, causing its army to stop.

“Here it comes,” I whispered to myself, feeling the others shift nervously on the feet.

“Tree,” The Shiftry said raising its arm even higher. I gulped. Couldn’t it just hurry up and do it already? But before it could there was the loud snap and crack of reinforced glass breaking as the ambient temperature dropped dramatically. The wind then picked up in rush, no long the warm tropical breeze native to the islands but rather a cold chilling wind, that cut through the flesh to the bone and soul, that could be found from time to time on the lower islands in the midst of winter. Then the snow came, fast, furious and to the surprise of all. It came hard and the grass type army had no chance at to prepare a defense or counter for it, within moments they were all either frozen stiff or out cold, face down in the snow. The Shiftry which led the arm was a part of the former, ice sickles forming along his now blue-brown nose.

“What the,” I said looking around. My eyes then found that the place where my egg had been was replaced with a field of frozen, splintered safety glass and a creature that looked like a small triangular Eskimo which looked up at me with its small icy blue eyes. It then let out a shrill cry and ran towards me, grabbing on to my leg.

“Snow snow snow snorunt,” it jabbered as it hugged my leg.

“It’s a Snorunt,” Carrie mumbled in confusion, “What happened?”

“It takes a lot of energy to hatch,” Darius said, “It must have used some of that remaining power to create a compounded Powder Snow… although in my opinion that was more like a very weak Blizzard attack.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking down at the baby shocked that I had missed its hatching. Then from nowhere, except maybe an old cartoon, the lid from the egg jar fell down from the sky and landed square on the point of Snorunt’s head. At first there was silence, then Snorunt’s eyes began to water, and it then began wailing. “Oh now, now,” I said, putting down the flaming stick, picking up the new born and taking off the lid, “It’s not that bad. It’s not that bad,” Then, somehow managing to pull out the miniaturized Pokeball with one hand, I enlarged the capture device and asked the Ice type, “How about this, you want to go inside?” The snorunt looked from me to the ball and back again then nodded. I then gently tapped the latch against the new born snorunt, turning it into red energy which the Pokeball then drew into itself, rocking gently till there was a click and the ball went silent.
We all stood there quiet for a while, trying to process all that had just happened when the warm tropical breeze of Faroese passed us by. At first no one gave it any notice, for it being such a common place thing, but we all took notice when there was a loud cracking sound coming ominously from the frozen Pokémon.

“Perhaps we should be going,” Carrie said, with urgency.

“I must concur,” Darius said, as I nodded, putting Snorunt’s Pokeball and picking back up the stick. We then gingerly made our way past the frozen and fainted grass types before bolting into a full out run.

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Yes! I’m finished! Finally... ok a few id like to say, firstly I’d like to apologize for taking so long getting this written and posted, I hope to have the next ones on sooner than this one. The other thing I’d like to say is that I should have the post checked and edited soon so please bear with those for a little bit longer. Thanks again to all you who have been reading this and please leave any comments and critiques that come to mind!